europe

What comes to mind when you think about Scotland? Whisky, Loch Ness, Haggis? YES, Scotland is all that. But there is so much more to discover! When you can live with some of the country’s worst enemies — the midges (pesky little flies) and the changeable weather all year long — you will have a whale…

There are many castles to visit in Romania. By far the most famous one is Bran Castle, where “Dracula” supposed to have lived. On my stay in an Airbnb in Brașov on a road trip with friends, my host told me that visiting Bran castle was overrated and that the Peleș castle in Sinaia was a…

Svalbard is a small Norwegian island located north of the Arctic circle; roughly in between Norway and the North Pole. It has a little over 2.500 permanent inhabitants, making it the most northern settlement in the world. One of the few things I heard about this archipelago is that the weather conditions can be rough…

It’s funny how distances are perceived in The Netherlands. If I speak to someone from the USA for instance, a 5-hour train ride gets you into another city. In The Netherlands however, you would be in Germany, Belgium or even France. Still, we moan when we have to take a train for 45 minutes to see…

If you have ever been an Ireland, you have probably noticed how prominently the Cliffs of Moher are advertised as a must-see place. Fair enough, these beautifully rugged cliffs on the magnificent west coast are definitely worth paying a visit. The thunderous sound of the waves crashing against the rocks, the many species of birds nesting…

We all have that one strange building we drive/cycle/walk past every day on our way to work, wondering what we could find inside. Often we never find out, unless we go out of our way and investigate. For me, it was two small warehouses with tram tracks leading to them, which I cycle past on my way to work.…

Where do the locals eat in Amsterdam? It’s not the McDonald’s or Burger King unless they have had one too many of course. There is a great choice of places to eat in Amsterdam, but few of them are in the central touristy areas. So who can help you find the best places to eat in Amsterdam?…

A Portuguese man with a big smile greets me as I exit the airport. It’s one of the few times I get picked up from an airport with a sign. This trip is off to a good start already, and it doesn’t even matter that my name on the sign is spelled with a k. The man’s…

:”A backpacker in a 4 star hotel”, that would be an alternative title for this article. My way of traveling usually doesn’t include any kind of luxury, since I am always on a (low) budget. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a bit of luxury. On the contrary, I probably even appreciate it even more…

It’s easy to lose your head with all the things to do in Dubrovnik, the famous Croatian seaside town boasting a medieval walled-in ‘old city’. Busloads, or should I say cruise-loads, of tourists make a day-or-two stop here, causing it to be flooded with people for a big portion of the year. My girlfriend Claire and I…

Weed? No. Coffee? Yes please! As a born and raised “Amsterdammer” who has never had even one puff of a joint, I DO mean cafés when I talk about coffee shops. Actually, finding new cafes in Amsterdam to work or just catch up with friends is my number one favorite activity in my home town, closely followed by number two: conquering nightclubs.

I don’t like sugarcoating things when it comes to reviewing tourist destinations like Istanbul. On the internet, every photo of a city’s major sights seems to have the clot of tourists photoshopped out. Sure, some of the popular markets and museums are decent, but take in account the long queuing time and you’ll find that there are better…